Hybrid or electric vehicles typically include a single electric motor connected to drive a pair of vehicle wheels through conventional powertrain components such as drive shafts, universal joints and differential gearsets. Alternatively, it has been proposed to provide a separate electric motor at each driven wheel, as disclosed for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,926 to Campbell et al., issued Jan. 10, 1967, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In such applications, separate reduction gearsets are provided at each wheel, resulting in a rather large, difficult to package assembly. Furthermore, large and heavy wheel assemblies can adversely affect the ride, handling and performance of the vehicle.